


Paranormal investigators: Reigisa!

by littleLuciernaga



Category: Free!
Genre: AU, Gen, probably shippy probably not!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-27 08:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleLuciernaga/pseuds/littleLuciernaga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  <br/>Or, how Supernatural would go if the brothers were these completely unrelated and dorky school friends who don't know the first thing about the paranormal.<br/>(Characters+ possible relationships will be added as they appear.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A prologue from the best seat in the house.

**Author's Note:**

> A little product born out of some fun spn streams with a dear friend, who also happens to like free! and rei and nagisa uwu. only time will be able to tell how this completely wacko idea will go uehehe.

A storm goes on and on outside the nearly shattered windows of the room, making itself known by the muffled flow of water pounding against every surface it may find and the distant rumbles of what could only be thunder. The droplets of the heavy rain going from a leak on the roof to the cracked wooden floor are the only sound to be heard on the insides, being constant enough to create a small puddle on their landing.

Everything around the tiny pond is wrecked, to say the least. The aforementioned windows that are broken enough to let the grayness of a cloud-covered-moon in are enough to easily present the touches of mud, dust and blood taking up space wherever anyone might choose to look.

To the common eye, Hazuki Nagisa and Ryugazaki Rei look the same as they always do even in the completely unusual place they are;  the total opposite of the other. They sit side by side on top of a surface that lets their feet almost dangling up in the air, seeming to have been there for already quite some time.

As always, Nagisa seems easygoing, and Rei seems like he’s about to kill something. Someone.

And as always, Nagisa pretends to be none the wiser about it, even as he takes a breath to talk.

“So, how are you holding up?” He asks, tilting his head at his companion.  Naturally, he is the first to effortlessly break a long silence. His voice is impossibly relaxed despite their current situation, almost as if it was a typical tuesday morning- some everyday class when he asks for Rei’s homework to compare before a teacher comes in-. “Hey, Rei-chan?”

Rei’s frown grows deeper at the question, which is something one could think of as a miracle considering he’s had the same upset expression ever since they sat down. It’s not the slightly scolding look he gives Nagisa each and every time he requests for the blonde to just turn his work as it is, but a face not far from rage. Were he able to move in whichever way he wanted to, he would’ve whirled, gotten up with a stomp and yelled his answer, but alas, he could not.

All the violet-eyed boy could do was to keep on sitting, having the clench of his fists be the only visible remark of his annoyance. He turns his look to Nagisa, throwing a million daggers at him with his eyes alone. His voice comes in angry whispers:

“Why, allow me to tell you how I’m holding up," He starts, using his all not to raise his voice enough to be loud, yet not talk softly enough to be taken seriously, "We’re in private property in the middle of nowhere and during a school night that, mind you, is but a few minutes into turning into morning. I haven’t eaten nor drank anything since this afternoon’s lunch. It’s raining cats and dogs out there-only god knows when that’ll stop-, my clothes are dirty, my hair too, I may need a change of glasses…” He huffs to emphasize now, “And most importantly! We happen to be stuck sitting on top of a _coffin! In which an actual undead person is knocked into!!”_

Nagisa is quick to grin at this all, lightly clasping his hands in delight.

“Hey, that’s great! if you’re able to count all the details like that, you can’t be as bad as I thought!” he says, chipper as ever. He loses focus for a moment, and holds onto the handle of a dirty shovel besides him, twisting it around to keep himself busy. He glances back at Rei, playing with the shovel, “Oh, and don’t worry about all that, by the time there’s at least a little bit of sunlight coming into the room we’ll be good to go! Just gotta keep the pressure going for now or else we’re zombie-chow.”

“ _Vampire_! It’s a vampire!” Rei insists with infuriated whispers, unable to get how _casual_ Nagisa was being about this all, “That’s the reason we’re sitting here right now! We didn’t have the appropriate equipment to deal with something like this!”

Nagisa only hums, unfazed by the outbursts.

“I see your point, but no matter how I look at it, it can’t be helped… Neither of us really thought we were going to actually see a monster, remember?”

All Rei wants to do is to keep his side of the argument up, mostly as a way to take out his anger and frustration at the whole situation; but he’s  unable to, understanding that Nagisa is right. He also understands that he’s probably looking very far from beautiful now and heaves a sigh, adjusting his crooked and cracked glasses. Anger is such an unfitting, ugly thing.

 Rei’s tone is leveled with his next words, carefully chosen for a change.

“…Right, I admit I wasn’t really coming here with that mindset.” He says, almost as a mumble.

Nagisa chuckles, like he had expected to hear that.

“I know, huh? I was, but just a little bit. Not like enough to come completely prepared to deal with this sort of thing, you get me?”

“I… suppose so.”

With that agreement comes the silent realization that there really isn’t anything more to talk about. There’s almost a complete quiet trying to set in again, constantly interrupted by the rain and the noises Nagisa makes when he hums tunelessly or taps the ground with the tip of the shovel he plays with. He’s obviously restless, unable to find other ways to keep himself sitting despite his own remarks of doing so for the sake of their mission, which in Rei’s mind, is the kind of attitude a little kid would take. Rei feels like calling him out on the disruption he kept making on his uneasy thoughts with all the mindless noise, but feels too nervous about being able to hear the grunts of a wakening monster were they to reach a definite silence.

At the end, he settles with listening to the humming and tapping, attempting to decipher where and when everything went to hell.

 

 


	2. Of a tuesday afternoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in which the prologue to the prologue. uwu

A week prior to spontaneous monster beating and coffin seating, Ryugazaki Rei actually led a life so normal that it could’ve been considered boring by any observer, meaning that it was absolutely perfect for him.

It all really starts one fateful Tuesday: A teacher has just done the daily practice to advise the freshmen to work hard for upcoming finals, and the day seems about to end as mundane as the others. Rei organizes his books and immediately makes way to leave the classroom in order to get ready for track club, but a painfully familiar frame is already waiting by the entrance, letting anyone but him pass.

“Please move,” Says Rei, looking down at one Hazuki Nagisa, who only smiles up as if he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

“Going to club already?” Nagisa asks, blissfully ignoring the request as if it hadn’t been made in the first place. Rei simply attempts to side-step him in order to ignore him just as well, but Nagisa follows his movements like a mirror, almost in perfect synchrony to Rei’s desperate attempts to be sneaky. It all ends resulting in a few passing classmates chuckling at what looks like a little dance. Rei can feel his face heat up from a few glances, and sighs at himself for falling into the kind of thing Nagisa probably expected since the very beginning. He glares down.

“I was tardy twice last week. Stop it.”

“But track starts in fifteen minutes, so there’s no real reason to rush!” Nagisa chirps, very aware that he had been guilty over that reprimand, “I promise I won’t bug you for too long, I just need your attention for a few moments.”

 _Thirteen minutes,_ Rei thinks, but already finds it useless to argue. Over the time he’s known the blonde, he’s come to learn that Nagisa has a very mysterious way with words and being influential, as he is the kind of boy who somehow manages to succeed in comparing- sometimes downright copying- homework with Rei at least thrice a week despite the stern claims of ‘just this once’ that are given each and every time. Anybody who’s known Rei before Iwatobi can testify that Nagisa is quite the accomplisher, being the first human being capable of getting away with something like that. All keeping in mind that Rei is the stiffest and most disciplined person one can know, and especially when it comes to schoolwork.

Rei offers no comment to this, though. He secretly blames it all on some sort of evil charm Nagisa has surely placed on himself in order to be more convincing than your average person.

In any case, Rei ends up crossing his arms and looking down at Nagisa with impatience, “Alright. You can tell me as I walk if it’s going to take so little.”

Nagisa’s eyes easily light up to the answer, and he finally steps to the side. “Sure, fair enough!”

For a moment, Rei feels like rolling his eyes, but decides against it, muttering his thanks. He understands he has nothing to be thankful for right now, but he’s polite, damn it.

Nagisa walks-no, _skips-_ next to him as they go down the halls and Rei tries his best not to acknowledge his bubbly presence, although he’s half-listening to mindless introductory chatter to whatever Nagisa actually wants to talk about. He’s aware that students all over Iwatobi are looking at them right now, that they have seen them walking side by side more than necessary, and the thought is a little more mortifying than he’d like it to be for reasons he can’t quite name. Not that he can do much about it when he and Nagisa have the same classes and use the same train to get home, though. Nagisa is part of his daily routine, as much as Rei hates to admit it, so he’s actually getting better at knowing when is it okay to tune out their talks, when to detect levels of importance to his tones. Right now is one of those moments when Nagisa takes his time to lay something out, as if he had all the time in the world to waste. Sometimes, it seems like he does, as he talks with such ease:

“-And then, oh, you won’t believe this part! So Gou-chan was like-”

“ _Excuse me_ ,” Rei finally interjects, to which Nagisa only tilts his head, not looking bothered by the sudden interruption. He seems curious, actually, which Rei takes as his cue to go on, and shows the blonde his watch, “I already know you’re far from finishing, but we’ve got really little time left.  I’d suggest for you to cut to the chase... Will you?”

It seems like Nagisa was already expecting the question. How is it that he _always_ knows what to expect?

“Ah,” He simply says, smiling, “I was getting to that, actually! That was the whole point about this last story, anyways. I’d just like you to hear me out and see if you can help me with something.”

The way Nagisa says this, completely casual, makes Rei doubt the importance of the favor. He squints.

“Go on, then.”

“Right… So you know how summer break’s just around the corner and I was telling you Gou-chan was bugging me about not being able to get a job no matter what?” He asks; and although Rei was not aware that that was the actual core of the story, he nods out of courtesy. He agrees with Gou to an extent, but that is beside the point. Nagisa nods too, to continue:

“Okay. This is going to sound a little crazy, but I already have an idea of what I want to do, and I was thinking that you could help me out with it.”

Again, Rei finds no option but to squint. The favor sounds suspicious enough without the ‘crazy’ part, and considering what the blonde’s concept of crazy might be, Rei has absolutely no idea of what to expect.

“You mean you want me to enroll in some summer job with you?” He asks, just to get an idea. Nagisa’s reaction is, surprisingly enough, a nervous chuckle.

“Something like that, yeah…” He says, almost in a mutter. Rei stares, confused beyond reason. If whatever this is seems to be enough to make _Nagisa_ nervous, then he really has no clue as to what will be said next. His eyes narrow in disbelief.

“What.”

With that last word, Nagisa stops walking to rummage in his bag. They’re just around the corner to the locker rooms, so Rei has the liberty to drop his own things while he waits for whatever Nagisa might pull. It turns out to be a flier, and to top, something that was obviously printed at home given the kind of common paper that was used for it. Nagisa walks up to him to hand it over.

“Here, this is what I was talking about. They say that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ anyways, don’t they?” Nagisa says, grinning. “Which by the way, is a phrase sponsored by none other than our own Ama-chan-sensei!”

“What a necessary add,” Retorts Rei, giving a single unimpressed blink.

“Just take a look at it, will you?”

Rei reluctantly takes the edges of the flier and stares down at bright and humongous words placed on top of what seems to be a cheesy homemade montage of horror movie posters:

**_Paranormal Investigators: Reigisa!  Something creeping you out? Visit us at xxxxx.com to-_ **

The sight breaks his cool façade in record time, enough for Rei to not even finish looking at the flier.

There is a two-second silence before some students can swear to hear the sound of a single and angry stomp.

“What the _hell?!”_ Rei practically shouts, his voice a strange mix of fluster and bewilderment. His expression is not much different from that, and Nagisa somehow finds it in himself to give a little laugh.

“I know it’s not the most conventional of things, but when you think summer you totally think horror!”

“I most definitely do _not!”_ Rei exclaims, fumbling with the flier, “First of all, look at this amateurish design, it isn’t beautiful at all!”

“Rei-chan, that’s kind of rude, I worked so hard on it!”

“No, you didn’t! You can tell from a glance that it’s the kind of thing you slap together in ten minutes at night with some lousy computer program when you’re bored!”

“Haha, wow, are you a psychic?”

“Yes-- _No_! You admitted that way too quickly!” Rei huffs, realizing how far he strayed from the source of his discomfort- it is time to backpedal to it-, “But more importantly, why would you choose me without my agreeing?! We barely know each other!”

At that though, Nagisa’s cheerful arguments stop and he seems honestly shocked. The retort is not smug or fun, but…different. He blinks.

“We so do, though…aren’t we good friends by now?”

Rei only blinks back.

“…Huh?”

The initial shock that washes over Nagisa at first changes to disappointment, if the subtle drop of his shoulders is anything to go by. Rei can probably count with only a hand how many times he’s seen him wear such an expression.

“Or don’t tell me, did I get that wrong?”

The question takes Rei off-guard.  If that was the motive of it, it certainly worked.

He stares at Nagisa’s sad (or is it pouty?) expression and finds himself mad for not being able to tell if it was real or the usual tease and or trick. It was especially hard to tell with a body language as unpredictable as Nagisa’s, and all he could guide himself with were expressions... Which were unusually sad, and therefore, very convincing.

Rei ends up shaking his head while looking down, missing the brief hint of relief in Nagisa’s eyes.

“No, you didn’t.” He mutters it. He hopes Nagisa isn’t looking at what he’s sure is an embarrassed expression. “…I still don’t get why me of all people, though.”

There’s a little pause from Nagisa, before thoughtful humming can be heard.

By now, Rei’s regained the will to look again at Nagisa, and he feels almost betrayed by that seemingly innocent smile the smaller boy gives.

“Hmm…It couldn’t be helped- I mean,” Nagisa winks, “Doesn’t the combination of “Rei” and “Nagisa” have a nice ring to it? Two girly names making the ultimate girly name, it’s almost like an idol sort of thing, don’t you think?”

At this point, nobody can tell if Rei’s face is as red because of anger or embarrassment.

“Idols and investigator duos are two very different things,” He says, shoving the flier back to Nagisa. “I absolutely refuse, there is no way you’ll make me part of this joke.”

Rei is prepared to storm out of the locker rooms, despite being nowhere near ready for track club, but before he can do anything to leave, Nagisa hurriedly catches him by the wrist.

“Ah, wait-! Come on, at least say you’ll think it over! It’s not like much people even believe in this kind of stuff anyways…” Nagisa urges, pulling out the best puppy eyes he can manage to look up at Rei; Rei’s patience is almost reaching its limits, mostly with the bold hold keeping him in place, so it’s not as effective as usual.

“Even if I were interested in this pointless idea, which I am not, I still see no sense in it. Especially because you just said it wouldn’t work as well because of the general public…There’s nothing to gain from this. If you understand that last part so well, then why would you choose to get yourself involved in it?”

Before Nagisa can come up with an answer, his hold on Rei softens a little. If Rei had to guess, he’d figure Nagisa was fumbling with his own words…but that’s kind of weird. This is Nagisa, after all, who talks as easily as breathing. The boy looks up before he can theorize some more, seeming the slightest bit hopeful, and it throws Rei off a bit.

“Well, um. It seemed like a fun way to get to do nothing, spend time with Rei-chan and gain a little extra money all at the same time…” He gives a nervous grin, far more genuine than most of what he’s shown so far, “And you just admitted that we’re friends, so with that in mind…”

With that, he reluctantly lets go of Rei’s arm, as if freeing him was an unspoken way to let Rei choose with more ease. Rei stares in disbelief at the blonde, who only gives a quiet, expectant glance.

It’s at moments like these when Rei wonders how one person can be as complex, what the formulas of figuring Nagisa out are; one moment, Nagisa is smiling, tricking and laughing, the picture of childish happiness. Another can be full of pouts and little hints of disappointment and nerves, and then he can turn into someone who can be understanding and easygoing- the person standing right in front of him.

Just…who’s the real one? Is there some sort of interval between a mood and another? Or is it possible that all those personalities and quirks can fit so easily into one small body like that?

Rei can only wonder, and if Nagisa was in a hurry for an answer, he didn’t show. He just kept that passive smile up, patient and expectant.

But when the silence feels like too long, Nagisa heaves a little sigh and looks at his shoes.

“…Well, track’s starting really soon and I already told you what I needed…so if you change your mind you can tell me right away, okay?”

He turns on his shoes with a friendly wave, and begins making his way out.

It’s then that Rei finds himself frowning at his own shoes, making faces at what he’s thinking right now.

Or rather, what he’s _not_ thinking as his mouth opens and he calls out,

“Nagisa-kun, wait!”

Immediately, Nagisa stops and turns his only his head around with a small questioning sound.

‘Stupid, stupid. This doesn’t make sense and you’ll definitely regret it’, says Rei’s head, but something else is urging him to speak up, as if he’d lose his chance to do anything else were he not to accept the deal right now. Rei knows himself well enough to admit that this is exactly what would happen…

And so he looks Nagisa’s way, doing his absolute best to look focused.

 “I’m… in. ”

This time, Rei does not miss the way Nagisa’s eyes widen in relief.

It’s kind of a pretty sight.

 

 


End file.
